In many sport activities, vision plays a fundamental role. Those players that excel in many activities must coordinate physical prowess with visual awareness to reach their full potential. Not only is sharp vision important in team sports, such as baseball, basketball, hockey, soccer, football, etc., where players pass a ball or puck between one another. Visual acuity is also important in myriad individual sporting activities such as running, biking, mountain climbing, tennis, golf, and skiing. A variety of advances have improved the visual environment in many sports, allowing players to have greater awareness and giving players the capabilities to improve their abilities. For instance, in skiing, specific skiing goggles exist, allowing skiers to better observe contours of the snow on a run. In tennis, the tennis ball is a bright yellow color, attracting players' attention and allowing the players to follow the ball's motion. In golf, advances have improved the brightness of golf balls, so that players can more easily locate their shots and avoid costly penalty strokes.
Despite the advancements to date, in many sporting activities there is significant room for improving visual acuity. For example, in various sports a ball moves with high velocity between players, quickly accelerating and decelerating as players interact with the ball. In such sports balls often also spin, which can greatly alter how a player interacts with the ball. Although graphics may exist on the ball, the graphics are typically structural markings such as stitching, or marketing graphics, such as the name of a manufacturer or a league name. In these instances, the graphics are neither designed nor intended to improve visual acuity. Yet it would be highly advantageous for a player to have the ability to notice the ball (e.g., by recognizing the ball in a player's peripheral vision) and track the movement of the ball more easily. For example, if a player could more easily locate a ball because when the ball spins it creates a “flicker” (spinning from a light portion to a dark portion and back), and more easily track the ball because of specially-designed graphics enhancing visual acuity, the player's performance would be benefited.